"That is happiness; to be disolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep." - Willa Cather

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Friday, 3 February 2012

Newsworthy: crazy women and normal children

But first, I need to vent for a second. I heard a show on Minnesota Public Radio today (and of course anything that comes out of Minnesota is haute couture according to Steve Q) where two "editors" and the host could not figure out when and when not to use good vs. well.

My guideline is to think about whether it is an adjective, adverb or noun.

What you can say in response to "how are you?":"I am doing well""I am good"(ok, technically incorrect unless you're trying to say I'm a good little girl, but it's better than the next two)

What irritates me:"I am well" (to me this implies you are not ill, like you just got over an illness that had you in the hospital. For most people, this is not what they mean - right?)"I'm doing good" (this implies you are working for Amnesty International or that you are a redneck from Iowa)

To avoid all the confusion, I just say "I'm fine". Because I am a damn fine woman.

Now that we have that out of the way, let's congruatulate Alicia H who was the first woman runner finisher in the Arrowhead 135 mile race in Superior National Forrest in northern Minnesota. She ran it in 55 hours and 56 minutes. Awesome. And crossed the finish line with a Spaniard.

Here she is while actually running the entire Superior Hiking trail, which took 4 days, 17 hours and 35 minutes.

And, oh my gosh, a woman from Næstved, and friend of ours, Annette, is going to run 366 marathons in 365 days. The current world record for number of marathons run in a calendar year by a female is 106

. The craziEST part: she has kids and a husband. Good luck, Annette! I can't wait to follow along.

Now, I'm actually not very newsworthy, but I am crazy. Plus if I didn't talk about myself, I'd just be a boring journalist.

My training has been going well lately.

Last Thursday I ran a 3:14:01 marathon on the treadmill. It was at 0.5% elevation. I did not count the bathroom breaks. This was two days after a 20 mile tempo.Fri: 10 miles easy, total body conditioning + swimming intervalsSat: 20 miles outside 8:45 paceSun: 15 miles outside + swimming intervalsMon: 20 miles on treadmill, slowTues: 3 miles easy, 1 x 6 mile intervals on hilly route outside in 6:32, 6:28, 6:26, 6:26, 6:25, 6:35, then 5 mile cooldown. Swimming intervals.Wed: 13 miles slow, stairclimber + modern nordic track + spinning class + yogalates

So - given my treadmill "marathon" time, I have (with SR's okay) signed up for the New Orleans Marathon March 4th to go for a PR. After that is out of the way, I can enjoy a spring and summer of ultras and triathons. :)

Oh, I forgot. I was in the news in some way - here is a page from the most recent Løbemagasinet in Denmark, informing women that continuing to train during pregnancy will improve their condition.

Crazy women. Yes. Now: read carefully the top regrets of dying people, collected by a palliative care nurse in Australia:

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.

3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

Yes, ladies, we could all learn from women like Alicia and Annette who let themselves do what makes them happy.

Touching Mattias chest, so soft over a paper thin breast bone and watching him coo and giggle.

The Lorax has been telling me about his best friend, "Santa" at school for days now. I was so happy he had made such a close friend. He told me about all of the things they did together. How Santa took a nap right next to him. How Santa played with him on the playground. I figured the boy's name was Xander. I asked tonight at his parent teacher conference who Santa was. And they had all assumed Santa was a friend at home because there were no boys there with a name close to that. We looked at each other. We looked at Christian who was playing with rocks in a sand case. Santa was not real, not to us at least. Santa is is friend he needs during this transition to a new life. I looked at my baby, Christian, still in many ways as fragile as Mattias.

And Natali announced tonight she thinks she might have a boyfriend. He is the most popular boy at school. His name is Quentin and I don't think she's making him up. They have told each other they like each other, but what the next step is, well, she suggested they eat lollipops and go for a walk on the bike path.

18 comments:

Sorry - had to delete the post and repost since it showed up I had written it four days ago

Comment from Alicia H.:Hey, I feel famous now! Thanks:)

Actually, #4 on your list (staying in touch with friends) was my new year's resolution this year. Or, more specifically, it was to spend more quality time with them. It hit me in the past few months that there are people I really like who I have spent maybe a day or two with in the past few years--not enough!

Your musings on well and good take me back to my 10th grade English class and the sentence diagramming I had to do. I hated it then but later realized that it gave me an excellent grasp on English grammar rules. I'm pretty sure saying, "I am well," is technically correct. The question, "How are you?" really has an implied "doing" at then end. So, I suppose we should all be answering, "I am doing well," if we really wanted to adhere to our language's rules. However, the thing I love about English is that it loves to play hard and fast with its rules. I'm fine saying that I'm "good" when someone asks how I am, but like you I tend to say that I'm fine just to avoid using good incorrectly. Right now hanging out with my family and baking are things making me the happiest. Most of my friends are far away, and making the effort to call them more often has made a big difference in my life.Love the pics of your family. All your kids are so beautiful!

I am happy for how well your running is going...wish you the best in the marathon. But...looking at the schedule, becareful or you might never make it to the starting line. In the next four weeks you won't really get that much fitter, but sure can do some harm. Trust me been there, done that. I would really focus more on the speed at this point and not worry about the distance. Mile repeats weekly or a very controlled tempo run. At your level it's not about being able to run that far, it's how far can you run red-lined. Well you know these things, I just worry about you girl!

I'm planning on my final words being "I wish I had worked more," as it's commonly said that no one ever says that.

Anything that comes out of Minnesota is haute couture? Not sure where that came from! (and yes, I intentionally ended a sentence with a preposition) The thing that keeps gnawing at me are people who say "hopefully" when they mean "it is hoped that." A close second is the unnecessary preposition: Where are you working AT?"

I'm getting burned out on the whole volume factor in running. 100 mile weeks? Marathon every day? 135 miles in arctic tundra? Why not just do less and do it well?

I hope you enjoy the New Orleans marathon. I did it about 10 years ago and really liked checking out the city's architecture that way. Also it is nice and flat and below sea level a can't beat that! Can't wait to hear your time! Love the family pics and "wish" list. Good to keep in mind ...

Really love this post; it evoked a different response from me with each paragraph :) I'm with SQ and FB though - if you allow yourself a little more recovery/taper in your leadup, you may actually EXCEED your expectations. If you keep doing your current load, well you'll probably just complete your race in the same time as you train to do? But then I'm no ultra-runner :) Beautiful pics.

Alicia, I didn't even notice that you (according to some) had the course record. That is really irritating they posted that wrong on the website :(. Sounds like you know not to get hung up on it, though.

Okay, to everyone else who says more quality and less quantity, I will ask - where does happiness fit in?? IF my goal were to make the Olympic Trials, you guys might be right. I guess I need to ask myself, though, what my goal really is.

Steve, the Minnesota Haute Couture comes from SR's blog post where you said Wiconsin was more redneck than Minnesota. So, basically, if MN is better than WI, it simply must be Haute Couture. Okay, maybe not...

As long as you are not running away from something and your body can handle the amount of training then I personally don't seen anything wrong with doing all the training that your family, love, work life allows you to do.

I know at least one other person who train as much as you if not more. He is a ultra trail runner, running multiday events (250-560km) in deserts, jungles and extreme cold like Yukon. I know you expressed an interest in the http://www.alandalus-ut.com/ are you sure that is not the path you wanna take instead of doing high speed marathons? (I know I do ;)

My daughter Nadia, also 4 this month, has recently invented a best friend named Feetsies. (Most of the time Feetsies is male, which is strange, because she always tells me how she doesn't like to play with boys.) It must be the age. Whenever I'm ignoring her...hmmm....(ie. doing stats homework, practicing, or other such menial tasks), I hear her talking to him and laughing at his imaginary responses. She has a 15 month old sister- I wish she would enjoy her company as much as she does Feetsies'!

Hello from Rude Skov

Photo by Stine Sophie Winckel

...

My name is Tracy. I am a physician scientist from the USA, living with my husband and two young boys in Denmark. I work as a post-doc fellow at Næstved Hospital. I have a scientific interest in vision loss, vision loss during exercise, exercise, running during pregnancy, MAF training as well as nutrition and health for athletes. I also have a love for music, physics, statistics, cycling, yoga, cross-country skiing, bla bla bal.

I was a member of Team USA at the IAU World Championships in Ultra Trail Running in 2013 in Wales. I am now training to run with Team Denmark at the IAU World Championships in Annency, France in May 2015.